THE LADY OF SHALLOTS

I will start with a confession. I don't like avocados. Yes, I am from California, and I do NOT like avocados. Ok, mash 'em up with lots of spices, lime juice, etc. and call it guacamole and we are all good. So...why I would make something with avocado for the first time now that it is winter in Massachusetts is beyond me, but this recipe from the March 2011 issue of Real Simple jumped out at me: Pollock with avocado relish and carrot puree (click link for recipe) I used these amazing carrots I bought at the Somerville Winters Farmers Market from Winter Moon Farm for the purée. Something about a mixture of kalamata olives and avocado appealed to me--I can handle avocado when it is in smaller chunks--it is the slices that trouble me. I didn't have pollock, but substituted haddock from Jordan Bros Seafood (also purchased at the Somerville Winters Farmers Market). This recipe was healthy, delicious, and colorful--and would be great for summer. I used the leftover carrot pu...

I have wanted to use a recipe from Barbara Lynch's Stir cookbook, almost as much as I've wanted to go to her restaurant, No. 9 Park . Most of the recipes aren't weeknight-type meals, but this one looked like something I could handle. I bought some great pork chops from Stillman's at the Turkey Farm at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market , along with some apples as well. I'm actually not a big fan of apples with pork chops, usually, but the caramelization did the trick here! Mmm....caramelized apples... Due to copyright, I won't give the amounts, but the ingredients are as follows: Pork Chops with Caramelized Apples, Celery, and Spiced Walnuts grapeseed or canola oil (I used grapeseed) pork chops, about 1 1/2 in thick salt and pepper Honeycrisp or Granny Smith apple (I used the latter) sugar (for caramelizing) unsalted butter (for caramelizing) chopped fresh thyme celery stalks, sliced very thinly on the diagonal whole parsley leaves (1/4 cup...quite a lot--...

I own many cookbooks. I enjoy looking through them and I'm a sucker for good food photography. However, after buying flounder at last week's Somerville Winter Farmer's Market, I discovered that I have a dearth of flounder recipes. It is only since moving to New England that I've been cooking fish regularly, so I'm still sort of shy when it comes to substituting one fish for another in a recipe (ok, except for whitefishes). So, I turned to The Joy of Cooking which remains one of the most inspiring cookbooks of all time and does so without the use of photographs (for me, this is saying a lot). First challenge was that the flounder is to be marinated in tarragon vinegar. No such vinegar was to be found at the store, so, I try to be resourceful: With that out of the way (I let the tarragon sit in white wine vinegar for a couple of hours until the vinegar smelled like tarragon (+ vinegar)), I could get going on the sauce. Ravigote Sauce is an adaptation of Velouté sau...